SPOCK SPEAKS ABOUT MILK: A COUP FOR PCRM? WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1992:
Child-care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock advised par-
ents at a September 29 news conference in Boston that babies
under the age of one year should not be given cow’s milk, and
that, “breast-feeding is the best milk feeding for babies.”
Spock, who gave up eating dairy products himself last
year, at age 88, went on to explain that cow’s milk causes some
babies to suffer intestinal blood loss, allergies, and indigestion,
as well as contributing to “some cases of childhood diabetes.”
Spock spoke as part of a panel including Johns
Hopkins University director of pediatrics Frank Oski, who
wrote a book in 1977 titled Don’t Drink Your Milk, and Neal
Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine. Early wire service and TV stories about the presen-
tation indicated Spock had directly supported Barnard in recom-
mending against giving children any cow’s milk. The early sto-
ries carried vituperative reaction from an anonymous American
Medical Association spokesperson, directed at Barnard but
tending to heighten the impression that Spock too had seriously
challenged mainstream medical opinion.
Then came in-depth follow-ups by Carole Sugarman
of The Washington Post and Marian Burros of The New York
Times––who is known for both thorough reporting on nutritional
issues and sympathetic coverage of vegetarianism. Both
Sugarman and Burros skipped the fireworks from the AMA and
other groups inclined to simply defend an entrenched position.
Both concentrated upon setting the record straight. In fact,
Spock’s recommendations were substantially identical to those
issued a year ago by the American Academy of Pediatrics. He
had not fully endorsed the PCRM position. He does not favor
milk-drinking, at any age; neither does he categorically disfa-
vor it for those who can digest it and want it.
Whether or not Barnard intended to give the wire ser-
vices the impression they got, Sugarman’s follow-up in particu-
lar buried the strong statements Spock did make beneath her
impression that, “in some ways he had been had…used by
PCRM….The group surely had known the impact of having the
pediatric legend cast any aspersions on such a sacred cow as
milk. The grey areas had gotten lost in sharp headlines and 30-
second sound bites.”
